It is finally time to bring my “Best of 2011″ series to an end with everyones favorite category (except those who appear in these pics) with my Best of Crash and Burn. Not many years ago many of the crashes you see in this post would have resulted in injuries for the drivers but thanks to todays safety technology every driver seen in this blog would walk away. The same can’t be said for their race cars!
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After several months of only shooting football and basketball it was time to get back to shooting one of my favorite sports, NASCAR. Unlike nearly every other sport in the world which has their biggest event towards the end of the season, the biggest race on the NASCAR calendar is the first race of the season. Strap in as I show you my best imagery from 12 days at the World Center of Speed in Daytona Beach.
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For the fifth straight year I found myself in Miami in late Novemember to shoot the NASCAR championship race. As with the previous four years all eyes would be on Jimmie Johnson as he was in a position to win his fifth consecutive Sprint Cup championship. This time however he would enter the final race second in the points, behind Denny Hamlin, and not far behind those two was Kevin Harvick who also had a realistic shot at hoisting the trophy.
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With how busy I have been covering NASCAR during this years Chase for the Cup I gotta admit I was starting to get bored with the repetition of covering several races. I haven’t shot an NFL game in well over a month and really miss shooting it, however a weekend in Talladega was more than enough to help me realize why I love covering NASCAR so much. Continue reading to see exactly why I love restrictor plate racing!
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After a few weeks of shooting baseball I was more than excited when NASCAR made its first visit of the year to the Valley of the Sun. While the race itself usually isn’t very exciting, the light for shooting photos of the race that begins in the day and ends at night is typically amazing. With three races on tap for the weekend things were shaping up to be a fun, productive weekend at home for me.
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With the Daytona 500 just hours away I figured I may as well throw up a blog of random photos from the week. I am sick in the media room with the flu so it will be lacking of my random talking and nonsense.
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So after shooting 13 NASCAR races around the country it finally came down to my 14th and final race of the season in sunny Miami for the championship race. With Jimmie Johnson having a gigantic points lead I would spend most of my weekend trying to get as many different angles of him as possible since the championship would be his third straight, tying him with NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough as the only driver to three peat, and would be good for sales. Continue reading to see what I came up with.
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Nikon D3, 80-200mm, 500iso, f5, 1/640th
The Craftsman Truck Series race is usually one of the best races I shoot all year. Sadly this year was the exception to the rule and all my best images during the race were of the drunk fans.
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